“Threatening behavior against our country and [contra] Peace in our region requires a timely and legitimate response from Venezuela. We have been deciding for our freedom for more than two centuries. We will not accept any form of neo-colonialism. Venezuela respects itself,” Venezuelan Vice President Delsy Rodriguez wrote on social media. [antigo Twitter].
The warning followed the arrival of a British warship in the area, hours after the Venezuelan government began military exercises with 5,600 soldiers near the border with Guyana.
On the same social network, the government official recalled that “Venezuela rejects and rejects the intervention of the United Kingdom in the territorial dispute over Guyana Escigueba.”
“They should remember that they forged the fraudulent report of 1899 to steal Essequibo, the only historical owner that was Venezuela. They should also remember that they were signatories to the 1966 Geneva Convention,” he stressed.
Rodriguez said, “The United Kingdom has an obligation to respect the Argyle Declaration. [assinada em 14 de dezembro]It expressly excludes external threats to sow or exacerbate a conflict between Venezuela and Guyana.”
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Thursday announced military exercises on the border with Guyana, “in response to threats” by the United Kingdom, which sent a warship to the area amid the Essequibo crisis.
Maduro pointed out that 5,682 warplanes are on patrol with F-16 and Sukhoi fighter jets in the first phase of the Venezuelan military exercise.
On the same day, Venezuela said in a statement that it “categorically rejects the arrival of the British naval ship HMS Trent off the coast of Guyana, which constitutes a hostile provocation and a violation of the recent Argyll Declaration. [São Vicente e Granadinas]Considered a plan to settle the territorial dispute over Guyana Essexiba”.
area EssequiboIt appears on Venezuelan maps as a “zone under claim” that has been recognized by the UN since the signing of the Geneva Conventions in 1966.
Covering about 160,000 square kilometers, Essequibo is rich in oil, represents more than two-thirds of Guyana's land area and is home to one-fifth of its population, or about 125,000 people.
For Venezuela, the Essequibo River should be the natural border, as it was in 1777 during the Spanish Empire. Guyana argues that the British colonial-era boundary was recognized by the Court of Arbitration in Paris in 1899.
On December 3, Venezuela held a consultative referendum in which more than 95% of the voters who participated voted in favor of the government's intentions to annex Essequibo to the Venezuelan maps.
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